Rusk: The Adventures of Gilbert Imlay 
25 
ambassador to France in 1794, wrote to Madison that the only 
Americans he found in Paris were New England men con- 
nected with Britain who were engaged in trade to France on 
British capital.^^ Swan, whom he called an unprincipled ras- 
cal, had, he said, a monopoly of the trade of both countries. 
The war-time restrictions on enemy trade made possible a 
rich harvest for those who could succeed in evading them. 
French officials repeatedly complained that Americans were 
carrying on intercourse with England, and asked for more 
strict supervision by the embassy and consulates.®^ The facts 
of Imlay’s earlier career in Kentucky and his later share in 
the French intrigues concerning Louisiana, together with 
Mary's comments upon his business dealings, might, in the 
light of the conditions just cited, justify an inference as to the 
nature of his trading ventures between 1793 and 1796. But 
there is no definite information on this phase of Imlay's activi- 
ties. Nor is there, so far as I know, the slighest shred of 
fact to be had concerning his doings from that time till his 
death. 
VIII 
Concerning Imlay’s death nothing at all was known until 
Richard Garnett, who had previously written the account of 
him in the Dictionary of National Biography, acquired, some 
years since, a copy (said to have been made in 1833) of an in- 
scription which at that time existed on a tombstone in the 
graveyard of St. Brelade's, Jersey,®^ and subsequently learned 
that the parochial register contained a record of the burial. 
According to the inscription, a Gilbert Imlay, who may well 
have been the adventurous captain, died on November 20, 
1828. The reason for his presence in Jersey is, so far as my 
information goes, a matter of the merest conjecture. That 
he was not in the island many years prior to his death is rea- 
sonably certain, for the name cannot be traced in the public 
June 30, 1795, in The Writings of James Monroe, ed. S.M. Hamilton, II, 313. 
As to French commercial relations with Scandinavia, Monroe wrote {Ibid., II, 143) 
that France drew great resources for her war from both Denmark and Sweden. 
E.g,, Monroe’s letter of August 30, 1795, to the Commissary of Marine, Ibid., II, 343. 
For this curious inscription and Garnett’s comment, see The Athenceum, August 
15, 1903. Garnett was unable to determine whether the inscription was still to be found 
in the churchyard. The present rector of St. Brelade’s informs me, however, that altho 
the entry in the parochial register still exists, the inscription has apparently disappeared. 
The record of the burial — the ceremony was performed by Ph. Guille, the curate — is as 
follows: “M. Gilbert Imlay fut enterre le vingt quatrieme jour de Novembre mil huit 
Cent vingt huit, age de 74 ans.” 
